The most emailed story of yesterday’s New York Times was a story about how doctors, particularly psychiatrists, were receiving payment from manufacturers of various drugs used to treat various psychiatric conditions. It detailed, in particular, how children were being prescribed powerful drugs, for non-indicated uses, and how the receipt of honoraria by the doctors was oddly coincidental with their propensity to prescribe said drugs.
It appeared on the front page of The Times, and jumped inside. It occupied about 60 column inches, not including three large photos. The same story appeared on the front page of yesterday’s Strib, too. Well, it was sort of the same story. It was plucked from the Times and edited down to about 33 column inches. (It’s probably also worth a mention that the Strib’s editing included taking out all the names of the Minnesota doctors, save one. One would think the doctors who were taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug companies might be the crux of the story. And it probably would be if you weren’t a Strib editor trying to make room for the much bigger story of Moorhead State banning cigarette smoking that occupied the main position on the front page. Oh yeah, there were the school kids who were collecting $58 for Darfur. That’s front page news, too.)
Now, in itself, the NY Times story on the front page of the Strib isn’t noteworthy because, hell, a large portion of the Strib every day is cadged from other papers.
What is worth noticing however, is that this scandalous story was about doctors in Minnesota. Yup, the NY Times has the reporters to come in here and get an important story right under the very noses of the hometown team.
Of course, the hometown team here is looking a lot like Sid Hartman’s fabled “Little Sisters of the Poor” being tossed on the field against the New York Yankees.
How does this happen? I prefer to look at it from the positive side. The Times is owned by a family that cares about their role in society, and the role of a great newspaper in helping keep our country great. They accept lower profits in order to accomplish their role.
But, while papers like the Strib self destruct in their never ending quest for increasing quarterly profits, The Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, which are all still family controlled, are going to end up looking a lot like Toyota looks now to Ford and General Motors.
It’s the long term view. It’s the mind set that the quality of the product is paramount for the long term success of the business. It’s rare in American business, and even rarer in the American newspaper business. And when a private equity firm owner is looking for the quick flip, it’s so rare as to be nonexistent.
p.s. Here’s another story from The Times today. It didn’t require the same sort of investigation as the above mentioned story, but it sure put an exclamation point on what drug companies are up to. Even wonder how these drug pushers get to pay a fine that amounts to a small portion of their profits, but selling a dime at Seventh and Hennepin will get you jail time?
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